Argentina

  On the campaign trail, now-President Javier Milei promised to replace Argentina’s peso with the US dollar. But, at least so far, he has failed to deliver on that promise. Instead, Milei has implemented a transition plan with the expectation of eventually establishing a more permanent monetary system, which might be something less than full-scale […]

  A country with a unique record of poor policies revealing the damaging effects of price controls has just demonstrated how effective their removal can be. In 2020, the Argentine Congress passed a new rent regulation, promoted by Representative Daniel Lipovetzky (Cambiemos). The “Lipovetzky Law” introduced three major features: it extended the minimum lease term from […]

  Javier Lanari, Milei’s Media Sub-Secretary, claimed that Argentina’s annual inflation dropped from 17.0% to 8% in record time. This statement has been heavily promoted by Milei’s administration, likely for political reasons—face-value numbers are easy to market as a success. However, I question the use of these figures, as well as Lanari’s enthusiastic yet premature assertion that […]

  In a significant legislative move, Argentine President Javier Milei has successfully passed his omnibus law, known as “Ley Bases.” This marks a crucial milestone in his administration as he transitions into the second phase of his government. Central to this phase is a new monetary regime, which was a major promise of his presidential […]

  Last December, when Milei became President of Argentina, his Minister of Economics, Luis Caputo, implemented a transitory plan to (a) clean up the central bank’s balance sheet and (b) remove all capital controls (cepo cambiario), paving the way for a more permanent monetary regime. It was implicitly suggested that by mid-2024, the transitory plan […]